CES: Maingear's Spark Steam Machine Announced

Add Maingear to the list of computer builders that will be delivering a Steam Machine this year, as the company announced details today on its new Spark system at the Consumer Electronic Show.

The system, which Maingear refers to as a Steambox PC, rather than as a Steam Machine, as Valve likes to call them, weighs in at 0.89 pounds and is housed inside a case measuring (W)4.5" x (H)2.34" x (D)4.23" . Maingear says it's the smallest gaming PC system it's ever assembled.

It comes equipped with a four-thread AMD A8­5575M (with individual thread speeds ranging from 2.1 to 3.1 GHz), a 2GB AMD Radeon R9 M275X, 2x SO­DIMM RAM slots (up to 16GB supported), and support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and USB 3.0. A standard hard drive isn't listed among the system's specs, but it does feature an mSATA slot for SSDs as large as 256GB and a slot for a 2.5" SATA III 6Gb/s HDD.

Unlike certain Steam Machines, the Maingear Spark doesn't have to come running with Valve's Linux-based Steam OS. While that is an option, buyers are free to choose from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. Also of note is the fact that the Spark doesn't include a Steam Controller.

More details regarding the Spark are set to be revealed in the coming weeks. A base price was not announced but it is expected out in "mid to late Q1 2014," putting its release somewhere in February or March.